Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.
John Milton
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Gratitude
Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.
John Milton
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
The Universe
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Religion, a Debate
Slate has a brief article describing a formal debate in New York City between atheists and believers about whether religion does more good than harm in the world. I find this an interesting conversation because it sidesteps the question of whether the religions are true or not, and concentrates on the effect religious belief actually has in the world:
Chapman and Grayling argued that anything good religion does—encouraging ethical behavior, providing comfort and community, promoting charity—nonreligious groups do, too. But along with the good stuff, religion also consigns women to a second-class status, foments division and conflict, oppresses gay people, encourages credulity, and stunts scientific progress. Of course, not all religious people share the same insular perspectives, but most extremists do, Grayling argued. “The extremists are the most honest of the people who have a religious view because they commit themselves to what their tradition tells them, and they stay closest to the text,” he said, explaining that moderate believers often “cherry-pick” the best parts of their religion, ignoring the rest. “Now, if that’s real religion, that’s honest religion, the world is very much better off without it.”
Wolpe and D’Souza maintained that religion does a vast amount of unrecognized good in the world—unrecognized because media outlets won’t run an article with the headline “Religious Man Feeds Hungry Man.” Religious wrongdoings, on the other hand, are exaggerated and overhyped in the news. Wolpe rattled off study after study showing that religious people are more likely to volunteer and participate in civic life, and less likely to do drugs or get divorced. Apparently, believers are even healthier and live longer. Oh, and if you think religious fundamentalists are evil, they’re nothing compared to the atheists. “The crimes of religion, even of Bin Laden, are infinitesimal compared to the nightmare of atheist regimes,” said D’Souza, naming Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Chernenko, Ceaușescu, Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot as a few examples. “[They] have killed far more people, in far shorter of a time, and are still doing it right now.” The world without religion, the men said, would be a bleak and impoverished place.
It seems to me that both sides are, at least, partially right. This is a complex question and impossible to deal with in depth here. But I think that religion is inherent in what it means to be human, that we can't really escape some manifestation of it, and that it can be a force for good, as least in individual lives. However, organized religion on the large scale lends itself to the establishment and enforcement of power - religious, governmental, social, etc. - and has much to answer for. I think one can be "spiritual" without being religious - which means we can take what we want from religion and leave the rest. It's when it becomes an organized entity that religion has the most potential for evil.
If Awakening is the goal, we must use any tools available. But we must also avoid the very tools that kept us asleep in the nightmare - and it seems to me that religion is too often one, if not the main, tool which works to keep us asleep.
Chapman and Grayling argued that anything good religion does—encouraging ethical behavior, providing comfort and community, promoting charity—nonreligious groups do, too. But along with the good stuff, religion also consigns women to a second-class status, foments division and conflict, oppresses gay people, encourages credulity, and stunts scientific progress. Of course, not all religious people share the same insular perspectives, but most extremists do, Grayling argued. “The extremists are the most honest of the people who have a religious view because they commit themselves to what their tradition tells them, and they stay closest to the text,” he said, explaining that moderate believers often “cherry-pick” the best parts of their religion, ignoring the rest. “Now, if that’s real religion, that’s honest religion, the world is very much better off without it.”
Wolpe and D’Souza maintained that religion does a vast amount of unrecognized good in the world—unrecognized because media outlets won’t run an article with the headline “Religious Man Feeds Hungry Man.” Religious wrongdoings, on the other hand, are exaggerated and overhyped in the news. Wolpe rattled off study after study showing that religious people are more likely to volunteer and participate in civic life, and less likely to do drugs or get divorced. Apparently, believers are even healthier and live longer. Oh, and if you think religious fundamentalists are evil, they’re nothing compared to the atheists. “The crimes of religion, even of Bin Laden, are infinitesimal compared to the nightmare of atheist regimes,” said D’Souza, naming Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Chernenko, Ceaușescu, Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot as a few examples. “[They] have killed far more people, in far shorter of a time, and are still doing it right now.” The world without religion, the men said, would be a bleak and impoverished place.
It seems to me that both sides are, at least, partially right. This is a complex question and impossible to deal with in depth here. But I think that religion is inherent in what it means to be human, that we can't really escape some manifestation of it, and that it can be a force for good, as least in individual lives. However, organized religion on the large scale lends itself to the establishment and enforcement of power - religious, governmental, social, etc. - and has much to answer for. I think one can be "spiritual" without being religious - which means we can take what we want from religion and leave the rest. It's when it becomes an organized entity that religion has the most potential for evil.
If Awakening is the goal, we must use any tools available. But we must also avoid the very tools that kept us asleep in the nightmare - and it seems to me that religion is too often one, if not the main, tool which works to keep us asleep.
Zen and the Art of Landscape
I found a great site put up by Bowduin College about the Zen gardens of Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto was not attacked during WWII, and is known for its original architecture, particularly the Buddhist temples and monasteries.
The web site is dedicated to the gardens of Japan, and primarily to the historic gardens of Kyoto and its environs, including Nara...Although many of these gardens are located within Zen Buddhist monasteries, this site is not intended to explore the influence of Zen thought on Japanese garden design, an influence that is often a matter of conjecture rather than historical evidence. Instead, the site is designed simply to provide the visitor with an opportunity to visit each garden, to move through or around it, to experience it through the medium of high-quality color images, and to learn something of its history.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Magic
Altucher has an intriguing post on Magic - short but intensely sweet. He speaks of himself as a kid, desiring, not to be a CEO or a lawyer or a doctor or whatever mundane thing takes over our lives, but to be "be a hobbit. Or a prince of the world of Chaos. Or a minor demi-god on Mt. Olympus. Everywhere I looked I saw opportunities for magic." This child's heart, he maintains, can be regained and maintained in the face of all the debased "adult" concerns. Money quote:
We forget quickly the sense of magic. The power of daydreams. But the truth is: the world that seems so real when we are adults still contains just as many mysteries, if not more, as when we were kids.
The key to restoring that magic: just for this second, forget the stresses caused by yesterday. The worries brought about by tomorrow. Right now, this second, picture any scenario you want and imagine it already exists. It takes practice to find it, and the demons from the past and the future will fight you. But ignore them for just this second. Practice.
This is fantastic (in every sense of that word). Magic, in this sense, is not just the trick of the magician or the falseness of magical thinking. Rather, it denotes the enchantment with which the child views the world - a freshness of being and perceiving that cuts through the fear and anxiety and depression and boredom which haunt the lives of so many adults. Altucher's remedy returns us to the Now - freed from the haunting past and fearful future - and gives us the ultimate joy of the imagination which connects us to the Magic which lives in the heart of all sentient beings. As Mencius put it, "The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart."
The child lives on in us. As Jesus put it, "anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." The kingdom of God - the realm of magic - is only accessible to those who live in their child's heart. Thus, we awaken to the Reality which transcends the real and transforms our lives.
We forget quickly the sense of magic. The power of daydreams. But the truth is: the world that seems so real when we are adults still contains just as many mysteries, if not more, as when we were kids.
The key to restoring that magic: just for this second, forget the stresses caused by yesterday. The worries brought about by tomorrow. Right now, this second, picture any scenario you want and imagine it already exists. It takes practice to find it, and the demons from the past and the future will fight you. But ignore them for just this second. Practice.
This is fantastic (in every sense of that word). Magic, in this sense, is not just the trick of the magician or the falseness of magical thinking. Rather, it denotes the enchantment with which the child views the world - a freshness of being and perceiving that cuts through the fear and anxiety and depression and boredom which haunt the lives of so many adults. Altucher's remedy returns us to the Now - freed from the haunting past and fearful future - and gives us the ultimate joy of the imagination which connects us to the Magic which lives in the heart of all sentient beings. As Mencius put it, "The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart."
The child lives on in us. As Jesus put it, "anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." The kingdom of God - the realm of magic - is only accessible to those who live in their child's heart. Thus, we awaken to the Reality which transcends the real and transforms our lives.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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